The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
This lady can be seen playing cards, singing with the seniors, making dainties and serving at teas for the Legion ladies. But her passion is flowers and plants. Ruth and Alex Roncin arrived in Flin Flon in the fall of 1953. They came from a farm where they were trying to make a living, near McCreary, but they weren't having much luck. In seven years they had only gotten three crops off, so they and their three kids came to Flin Flon, like most people looking for work. Alex bought himself a truck and began working for Monarch Lumber delivering building supplies and coal, mostly to the schools in the area. The family lived in a bottom suite at 131 Channing Drive, with no where for the kids to play. There was a family with three kids on the middle floor and another family with two kids on the top floor ? a total of eight kids all under one roof. Ruth said, "I almost lost my mind! I had never lived in an apartment before and was used to wide open spaces!" "Finally, on the Easter weekend in 1956 we bought a house in Channing. There was lots of area for the kids to play as we lived right at the end of the street with lots of rocks and bush and very little traffic, it just suited us fine!" "As it turned out there were 30 kids living on that short street. The moms on either end of the street would keep an eye out to be sure the kids were okay and not misbehaving too badly!" Through the years the Roncin family grew to seven boys and one girl. The kids went to the Channing School until grade 6 and then were bussed to Hudson School. Groceries were usually bought at Cash 'N Save in Mile 84. See 'Plants' P.# Con't from P.# Alex took a job working for the school division as a janitor for about three years until the Northern Lights Manor opened in about 1979 and he worked there until he had to take early retirement in 1985 due to bad health. It was around 1960 that Ruth took a job working for the University of Manitoba, growing and experimenting with plants, because the university wanted to know what would survive North of 54. Ruth smiles, "I suppose you could say it is one of those hobbies that just grew!" The greenhouse business expanded from there and went from two tunnels in the yard to leasing land across the road about 20 years ago. Today the business is flourishing and Ruth grows about 173 dozen plants just for the City of Flin Flon and she now has four tunnels. Ruth says what has changed is that she doesn't grow from seeds anymore but orders her seedlings from Winnipeg and has them shipped overnight by Gardewine. "I plant only the larger seeds," she says. When asked about the competition and the box stores coming in and if they have hurt her business, Ruth replied, "I cut back because I am getting older, but I still sell everything I plant, the box stores haven't affected me at all. They don't have the same class of plants!" Ruth stated that she has been in the greenhouse business for about 30 years and, "I am ready for next year! My dirt is bagged and ready to go, all 600 bags of it. I am 78 and I 'might' quit when I am 80!" Ruth is very involved in the community as well, she drives her friends who aren't able to drive anymore to cards that the seniors play almost every night of the week either in Flin Flon or Creighton during the winter. Ruth has the distinguished honour of being named a life member of the Legion Ladies Auxiliary, the Legion, the Horticultural Society, and Ross Lake Curling Club. In 1992 she was made an honourary citizen of Flin Flon. Her husband Alex passed away in 1993. Ruth handled his passing by just becoming busier. She received the Silver Award for her work with the Canadian Cancer Society, she went on the Lifeline board, and she received the Paul Harris Award from the Rotary Club in 1997. She has since retired from the Palliative Care Unit after eight years sitting with the dying. Ruth was very active in 4H, working with her grandchildren from about 1983 to 2002. Ruth started curling about 30 years ago with Edna Hay, Jean Hook, Eva Krassilowsky, Ethel Rainville and Anne Palmer. Then she started curling Uptown in the afternoon league with Anne Henry, Evelyn Meyer and Deena Lofgren. She still curls in the Golden Gals. Ruth was also in the Flin Flon/Creighton Seniors Choir when Eva Woods was the director and Bernice Gourlay played the piano. Other members were Anne Henry, Doris Hamilton, Jan and Eve Akkerman, Edie Chlan, Norman Dow, Doris Jackson, Ruth Jackson, Mary Evans, Molly McKay, Gladys Nomeland, Sophie Ostrowski and Russ Woods. The choir disbanded around 2002. Ruth has no plans of ever leaving Flin Flon. She has 14 grandchildren and one great grandchild. She proudly states, "My oldest grandson just got his Masters in Computer/Electrical Engineering and another grandson is in his last year of Business Administration, while two granddaughters are finishing their education to become teachers. I tell my grandkids you have to graduate to get on the top shelf!" Ruth stated that her kids have been very good to her and that she wouldn't be able to carry on with the business without their help. Thanks so much for sharing Ruth. Now when people see you up to your elbows in the dirt at spring planting time, they will know you aren't just playing in the dirt, but enjoy getting your hands into the soil as you tend to your plants! This is the last of the Looking Back stories for this year. They will begin again in January with such people as Murray and Marg Smith, Elmer and Joan Gohl and many more. If you, the reading public, have someone who you think would make a good story, please let me know at [email protected].
